mark as of a cloven hoof was imprinted on the stone."

CHAPTER VIII.

METRICAL AND SUPPLEMENTARY.

I. Arrival of the Mail-train at a Highland Station.
II. Defoe, the Father of Journalism.
III. A Village Toper.
IV. A Reverend Hellenist.
V. Antigone.
VI. Shadows of the Manse.
VII. "My Heart's in the Highlands."
VIII. Saddell, Kintyre.
IX. Springtime in Perthshire.
X. Dr. George Macdonald's Creed.
XI. Abbotsford.
XII. Carlyle.
XIII. Shelley.
XIV. Picture in an Inn.
XV. Rain-storm at Loch Awe.
XVI. Kinlochewe.
XVII. General Wade.
XVIII. Sound of Raasay in December.
XIX. Les Neiges d' Antan.
XX. The Islands of the Ness.
XXI. American Tourist Loquitur.
XXII. The Miners.
XXIII. In a Country Graveyard.
XXIV. No Place like Home.

I.

ARRIVAL OF THE MAIL-TRAIN AT A HIGHLAND STATION.

"_Hark! 'tis the twanging horn._" So Cowper sang
Of the slow post-boy by the flooded Ouse;
In different fashion now the great world's news
Goes to each nook of Britain. The harangue
Of politician; great events that hang
In Fortune's hand, with magic speed diffuse
From London's centre to the furthest Lews,
Their tingling rumour and resounding clang.
Daily along yon track of curving steels
Comes to this Highland clachan, Watt's machine,
Rolling in triumph on its iron wheels,
And bringing letter, journal, magazine,
To kilted Celts with collies at their heels
And frivolous tourists from the putting-green.

II.

DEFOE[34]

(FATHER OF JOURNALISM).

Father of journalists! illustrious liar!
Untiring wielder of the nimblest quill
That ever shed the stanchless inky rill
Upon the virgin whiteness of the quire.
What full and varied stores of gold and mire,
Magnificence and squalor, good and ill,
Prayers, curses, loyalty and treason fill
Thy books! But that which children most admire
Of all thy hundred volumes, is the one
Fated for ever more to charm mankind
From the far Orient to the Setting Sun.
Prompt-witted Daniel! thou has left behind
Upon the Sands of Time, distinctly traced,
One footmark that can never be effaced.

[34] Let me here pay a tribute to the marked excellence and
literary skill of the newspapers of provincial Scotland. These
are very numerous--even Ailsa Craig has a sheet of its o